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Sleeping through the night

Tina - posted on 11/05/2008 ( 1 mom has responded )

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Okay my son is 8 months old and he does not and has not sleep through the night still. He wakes up ever three hours still to nurse during the night. I was okay with it when he was younger but now it is just old. He is also at that stage where he is looks around and wants to play a lot during the day (while nursing). He is also on soilds during the day, (some fruit puffs as a snack and two (stage 2 or 3) baby food jars). He eats well but he is still up at nights. I know that when he is teething he also likes to nurse a lot, which he already has four teeth and is cutting two more. He does not take a pacifier at night. He hates the bottle. So I am his personnel teething soothy at night. But also when he is not teeth he is still nursing. Any Suggestions?

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Nicole - posted on 11/05/2008

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Well I may not have info you want to hear... but... first make sure you realize, when Drs. and the like say sleeping through the night, they mean sleeping 4-6 hours straight. That's all, not 8 hours. So he's very close as it is. Then, at 6 mo. my son started waking more than every 1.5-2 hours and I work full time too. I about lost it mentally. Well, we ended up bringing him into our bed per my OBGYN's suggestion so I could nurse him in the night and still sleep. Turns out we LOVE bed-sharing. At 22 mo. my son is still with us and we have another on the way. Looks like we may do the family bed as we are also doing child-led weaning and want it to be my son's choice when he moves into his race car bed that is at the foot of our bed. Anyway, this helped a lot so he could nurse and I could sleep. I also made it a point to nurse him more during the day so he was getting his nursing nutritional needs met during the day. At 8 mo. they're just not getting what they need nutritionally with the solids they are eating... you are still their main source of nutrition. So he may be making up for not getting what he needs in the day. Then yes, 6-12 mo. is a huge time of growth and teething for many. So of course he'll want his favorite comfort thing.. you! Around 18 mo. my son finally started seriously sleeping what I consider through the night... he doesn't ask to nurse from about 11pm-12am until about 7 am. It's great. He also does sleep from about 10p until 8am as well. But will ask to nurse some just after going down and just before waking. Also, consider doing cluster feedings in the evening, nursing him every hour from like 5-9pm or so to again get in those needed caloric intake feedings done before bed time. Good luck, you may need to adjust your expectations, but then I am into attachment parenting and the like, so that's what I personally had to do. Otherwise, do some net searching on night-weaning. Although remember American Pediatrics recommends at least 1 yr. of BFing and WHO (world health org) recommends at least 2. Best wishes!

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